P. J. Sheehan
Question:8 Mr. Sheehan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the steps he will take to establish a floor price of £350 per cow under the destruction scheme. [3990/01]
Other Questions. - Purchase for Destruction Scheme.
The purchase for destruction scheme was introduced by the EU Commission as a market support measure to provide an outlet for beef for which there was no other market because of the decline in beef consumption in many member states and the closure of most of our third country markets.
The EU regulation governing the scheme provides for the destruction prices to be fixed on the basis of average Irish prices during the month of November 2000 and it requires member states, when fixing prices, to take account of traditional price differentials between categories and classes in the member state.
The prices which have been fixed under the scheme reflect the traditional price relativities for the different classes of cows in Ireland. These prices give an average price of £360 per cow. It is not open to me under the EU regulation to fix a floor price of £350 per cow because that would not leave any scope to apply the traditional differentials between the different classes as required by the EU regulation.
I should point out that the number of cows slaughtered under the scheme has been at reasonable levels in recent weeks and, as I said earlier, it amounted on average to 31% of the total kill.
Is the Minister aware that it is anticipated that 400,000 beef cows will be slaughtered under the destruction scheme this year? The farming bodies, and farmers themselves, are very annoyed that ridiculously low prices are being paid for these cows and they are inclined to put weight on these cows before they sell them for the destruction scheme. As the Minister knows, the more weight on the frame of the animal, the larger the carcase to be disposed of. Surely it would be in the interest of the Department to adhere to the request from the farming bodies and establish a floor price of £350 per cow under the destruction scheme. That would at least give an incentive to farmers to dispose of the cows as quickly as possible and not put extra weight on them which will only create bigger problems in terms of the destruction scheme.
The scheme is to support the market and take a backlog of beef out of the system. Beef farmers bought store cattle in good faith and fattened them for sale prior to Christmas. The market collapsed, there was a decline in consumption and a suspension of imports into Egypt and third country markets. The Commission had to find some way of dealing with this particular problem and it introduced this scheme. It was not anybody's preferred scheme, and it certainly was not my preferred scheme, but it was a scheme to take finished animals out of the system.
The scheme has taken about 60,000 cattle so far out of the system and of that 60,000, over 18,000 were cows. It is incumbent on dairy farmers to put their cows into the scheme and not to fatten them to get the extra penny out of it. Beef farmers have put it to me that of the amount of money the scheme will cost, which will be very considerable, this is one way dairy farmers could get some of the finite amount of money that is available. Apart from all that, the EU regulation precludes me from putting a floor price of £350 for cows under the scheme.
As the Minister knows, yesterday we had a very fruitful discussion with officials of his Department and I want to relay to the Minister my thanks—
A question please, Deputy.
Is this not an open question?
There is a time limit.
Apart from the EU, is lack of disposal capacity one of the reasons which might be inhibiting the Minister from examining the possibility of introducing incentives in regard to the elderly cow population, which has been proved statistically to be the most likely source of infection, as my colleague, Deputy Upton, mentioned? Is the Minister concerned that rather than take out the older cows because of the poor price, some farmers might put them in calf and there might be a drop in the normal culling rate, which is 18% or 20%, because of the decrease in price for culled cows over the past few months? Has the Minister given any consideration to a calf processing scheme or has that matter been discussed at EU Commission or Council level?
Is the Minister aware of the fact that cows have been sent back from factories because departmental officials thought they were too bare of flesh? I am speaking specifically of three cows which were transported from Donegal, through Sligo-Leitrim, to the factory in Clones, walked off the lorry and were walked back on the lorry again. It was a major catastrophe from a cruelty point of view that those animals were sent back to Donegal for further feeding to cost the Department more. That does not make sense. Can we not have common sense in this regulation?
The EU regulation governing the scheme precludes a flat payment. Article 4 of Regulation 2777/2000 requires members states when fixing prices to take account of representative prices for relevant carcases and carcase qualities, and of the traditional price hierarchy between categories and classes. Apart from the regulation, there are a number of other considerations, the main one being that the real purpose of the scheme was to take out the backlog of beef in the system, which applied to finished cattle. There are more than 18,000 cows in the scheme.
Deputy Penrose asked specifically about our rendering capacity. The general rendering capacity has been inadequate. It is deplorable that we have carcases, risk materials of various kinds and meat and bonemeal being stored.
Regarding the issue raised by Deputy Crawford I am not aware of cattle being sent back because they did not have enough flesh on them, but I will follow up that matter. In relation to the calf processing scheme, I was disappointed that it was not included in Commission Fischler's seven point plan, for example, and I will take it up with him at the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 22 February.